“The Health Care Reform Act Requires us to determine how many hours an employee must work to qualify for health insurance benefits,” Keller said. “Most school divisions require four to six hours per day. We are going to ask our Board to approve four and a half hours per day. Also we have to be able to create a system that helps us track the hours that an employee works. Paying by the hour will help us meet this requirement.”
At the School Board meeting Wed. (Feb. 12) Transportation Supervisor Jessica Cannon said out of 66 drivers, there are only nine who right now don’t already work four and a half hours. Cannon is meeting with those drivers to see if there is a way to give them more hours if they want them.
Another consideration is pay equity, Keller said.
Right now, drivers are paid a daily rate no matter how many hours they drive. The scale starts at $71.05 per day for drivers with up to five years’ experience and tops out at $89.14 per day for drivers with 29 years’ experience.
That amounts to some drivers getting close to $70 per hour, Keller said.
“Our scale is inequitable,” she said. “By paying the daily rate there are drivers who drive for one and a half hours who make the same day rate as a driver who drives four hours. We need to restructure this scale. Area school systems pay by the route, pay by the hour and some still pay by the contracted hours. Few pay a daily rate.”
Keller said Cannon is meeting with her focus group to “assist in making this a smooth transition.”
Cannon reported to the Board that her focus group is also looking at staggering school start times to cut down on the amount of buses needed and to shorten the time young students ride the bus. The added benefit of staggering start times is giving up to 15 more minutes per day of instructional time, Cannon said.
The proposed schedule suggests using 11 of Carysbrook Elementary/Middle School routes to run a double run by going back to Lake Monticello and pick up High School Students, Keller said.
“This gives 11 of our drivers an opportunity to get additional hours to meet the required time for getting health insurance benefits,” Keller said. “The staggered start also gives us the opportunity to increase instructional time by about 15 minutes per day.”
Perhaps the best result of staggering routes is giving Central and West Central Elementary their own buses, she said.
“This shortens the time on the bus for them by approximately 20 to 30 minutes,” Keller said. “These are our youngest students and they are on the bus entirely too long this year. Putting Carysbrook and Fluvanna Middle School together shortens their time on the bus by approximately 15 to 20 minutes.”
